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Children do not spread coronavirus


After nine months of keeping school closed, Dr Anthony Fauci said, “data shows that schools children do not spread coronavirus.”

Nothing new. The data have shown exactly that fact. Study after study show that school children do not spread the coronavirus, and further more, school children have very little risk of dying of coronavirus.

After nine months of keeping school closed, Dr Anthony Fauci said, “data shows that schools children do not spread coronavirus.” Nothing new. The data have shown exactly that fact.

Study after study showed that school children do not spread the coronavirus, and further more, school children have very little risk of dying of coronavirus.

President Donald Trump was mocked by mainstream media when he said “open the schools, stop this nonsense, ” but Nancy Pellosi said “this administration is messing with the health of our children.

Take a moment and watch this video and demand to stop this whole nonsense of lockdowns.

Children should not wear masks, simply because they don’t spread the coronavirus, and they should go back to school.

Thw WHO and UNICEF adviced “children 5 and under should not wear a mask.”

If the data shows that children don’t spread coronavirus, why local authorities are mandating children to wear masks.

A young adult under puberty is considered a child, means 13 years and under should not wear a masks.

Trump still the US president


The New World Order Aka the United Nations vote this week to remove mariguana from “dangerous substances,” and the Democrats followed the lead.
Isn’t it something that a sovereign nation is almost taking orders from the UN?
“The U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted this week to remove marijuana and marijuana resin from the category of the world’s most dangerous drugs, paving the way for additional research opportunities.”
Why now?
Not that I’m against that mariguana being decriminilized, but its rather odd that congress is doing this now, when there is some much chaos in the country.
US is involved in vote fraud court cases, regardless if mainstream media try to hide the facts. Then the unnecessary lockdowns with a failed economy driving the country into a crash.
Is it some sort of diverting strategy, or the fact that nine months after the lockdown started, Congress isn’t passing a stimulus check for the people?
It begs the question, why Nancy Pelosi completely disregard President Donald Trump, while talking of present issues, and instead referers to the elected President Joe Biden, when the house is still in session and Trump is still the president.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/congress-takes-historic-bill-decriminalize-cannabis-n1249905

US Presbyterian Church Divest from companies doing business with Israel


by Marivel Guzman

Presbyterian Church Logo

Presbyterian Church Logo

In another victory for Palestine today the General Assembly of the United State Presbyterian Church in its 221st GA (2014) voted 310-303 in favor to divest from companies that don’t comply with the church policies of “peace making” adding today another triumph to Boycott and Divestment and Sanctions, the Palestinian non-violent civil movement pressuring Israel to comply with its international obligations as an occupier force according to the statutes of the Geneva Convention and United Nations resolutions adopted against Israel.

The GA of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) urges divestment from corporations involve in military-related production, tobacco and human rights violations. See list of companies

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In March 2002, General Assembly Clerk Clifton Kilpatrick sent a letter to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon stating in part, “While we do not condone the acts of violence by certain Palestinian extremists, we are appalled that Israel, in response, has continued to punish the entire Palestinian population and its leaders who have been your government’s partners in the peace process.”

In its web side the Presbyterian Church announced on January 13 of this year to put in the agenda for Detroit 221st Assembly the vote to divest from companies not in compliance with the church General Assembly that  since 2004  have directed Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) to use the church’s customary corporate engagement process to ensure that church investments are made only in companies engaged in peaceful pursuits in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

“After years of corporate engagement through 2013 and utilizing all tools that we had available to us, these three companies remain entrenched in their involvement in non-peaceful pursuits, and regrettably show no signs of their behavior changing. If anything, since the 2012 General Assembly these companies have deepened their involvement with non-peaceful pursuits that make the General Assembly’s goal of a just peace even more remote,” said Elizabeth Terry Dunning, MRTI committee chair.

The General Assembly military-related divestment policy was first adopted in 1982, and has been revised three times since then.The most recent revision was made by the 1998 General Assembly. This policy is an outgrowth of the General Assembly’s adoption of Peacemaking: A Believer’s Calling, which asked the entire church to review its witness and seek additional ways to promote peacemaking.

At its 221st General Assembly minutes the church voted 310-303 in favor to divest from Caterpillar, which provides heavy equipment that has been used by Israel to demolish Palestinians’‍ homes and build roads for illegal settlements on occupied land; and Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard, both of which provide high-technology products and services such as surveillance systems and biometric scanners at checkpoints.BD

 

I am an American Jew that has witnessed first-hand the oppression of the Palestinian people. I spent three months in Nablus in the West Bank. While I was there, I experienced the humiliation these people go through every day just to get to work or visit family in the villages. They have no freedom of movement. There are hundreds of checkpoints scattered between cities in the West Bank, making what should be half hour commutes take up to two hours. This has nothing to do with protection and security for Israel. Most of the check points are not even on the border with Israel. What is happening is an apartheid state where one ethnicity is allowed more rights and Boycott Divestment and Sanctions worked during apartheid in South Africa and we can make it work now! Abby Harms comment on Presbyterian Church forum at Docket 221st General Assembly

 

The Presbyterian Church through its transformational Investment project in Palestine seeks to support collaboration, minimize Palestinian dependence on others  investing in West Bank.
The investment objective is to increase the potential viability of a Palestinian State at peace with Israel……Read more

BDS logo

BDS logo

 

The global movement for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights was initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005, and is coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), established in 2007. BDS is a strategy that allows people of conscience to play an effective role in the Palestinian struggle for justice

Whistleblower Edward Snowden granted Asylum in Russia


Published on August 1, 2013 by Akashma Online News

UPDATED

by Marivel Guzman

published in RT

Good News for Freedom, Edward Snowden the American whistleblower  leaves the transit area of Russia.

The words that shook the US on June 9, 2013 when Edward Snowden from a hotel in Hong Kong gave a video interview to Laura Poitras, who made the video public in the interest of society. She published it under the Fair Use Notice Act.

“Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.”
This was the beginning of NSA nightmare for the US officials.
Now the waters are receding for everyone involved, but not for Edward Snowden, he still face very serious criminals charges if he ever is brought to the US.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is allowed to enter the country’s territory.

This move would allow him to maneuver and apply for citizenship in another country, so he can hold a passport to take a plane to fly finally to the country that offered him permanent asylum.
Good News for Snowden he is allowed to leave the transit area of the airport and finally breath some freedom, at least for now.

He is not completely free, as long as the US consider him fugitive, Snowden it is in risk of being targeted for assassination, and who knows if Israel’s Mossad will lend a hand to their financial supporters in exchange to stir the mood in the EU after they boycotted Israel economic aid against the illegal settlements. But
Knowing the shady political relations of US/Russia we are in the dark as the secret deals these two countries make in behalf of their banking masters.

For now all the eyes are in Snowden and that gives him a cloud of security. The US could not attempt a drone strike in Russian territory, it is not in its best interest, this could open up an ego wound on the pride of Russia. One thing is to have diplomatic relations on the light of the camera, but another thing is to allow US to openly brake the sovereign of Russia flying in its skies.

The whistleblower has been granted temporary political asylum in Russia, Snowden’s legal representative Anatoly Kucherena said, with his words later confirmed by Russia’s Federal Migration service.

“I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone,” he added.

Kucherena showed a photocopy of the document to the press. According to it, Snowden is free to stay in Russia until at least July 31, 2014. His asylum status may be extended annually upon request.

With his newly-awarded legal status in Russia, Snowden cannot be handed over to the US authorities, even if Washington files an official request. He can now be transported to the United States only if he agrees to go voluntarily.

Snowden departed at around 15.30 Moscow time (11.30 GMT), airport sources said. His departure came some 30 minutes before his new refugee status was officially announced.

Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights States:

  • (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
  • (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

His present location has not been made public nor will it be disclosed, Kucherena said.

“He is the most wanted person on earth and his security will be a priority,” the attorney explained. “He will deal with personal security issues and lodging himself. I will just consult him as his lawyer.”

Snowden eventually intends to talk to the press in Russia, but needs at least one day of privacy, Kucherena said.

The whistleblower was unaccompanied when he left the airport in a regular taxi, Kucherena added.

However, WikiLeaks contradicted the lawyer, saying the organization’s activist Sarah Harrison accompanied Snowden.

FLASH: We can now confirm that Edward Snowden’s welfare has been continuously monitored by WikiLeaks staff since his presence in Hong Kong.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 1, 2013

Russia is confident that the latest development in the Snowden case will not affect US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Moscow, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said.

“We are aware of the atmosphere being created in the US over Snowden, but we didn’t get any signals [indicating a possible cancellation of the visit] from American authorities,” he told RIA Novosti.

Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA contractor, came to international prominence after leaking several classified documents detailing massive electronic surveillance by the US government and foreign allies who collaborated with them.

Snowden was hiding out in a Hong Kong hotel when he first went public in May. Amidst mounting US pressure on both Beijing and local authorities in the former-British colony to hand the whistleblower over for prosecution, Snowden flew to Moscow on June 23.

Moscow was initially intended as a temporary stopover on his journey, as Snowden was believed to be headed to Ecuador via Cuba. However, he ended up getting stranded at Sheremetyevo Airport after the US government revoked his passport. Snowden could neither leave Russia nor enter it, forcing him to remain in the airport’s transit zone.

In July, Snowden applied for temporary asylum in Russia, a status that would allow him to live and work in the country for one year. Kucherena earlier said the fugitive whistleblower is considering securing permanent residency in Russia, where he will attempt to build a life.

President Nicolas Maduro said asylum would be “seriously” considered if sought. Snowden deserves a “humanitarian medal,” he added.

“If this young man is punished, nobody in the world will ever dare to tell the truth,” he stressed.

He’s a man of his word. It’s official. Maduro granted Snowden asylum. He did so on Venezuela’s Day of Independence.  Global Research

Related News to Edward Snowden

AP exec editor briefs UN Security Council on protection of journalists


Posted on July 26, 2013 by Akashma Online News

Kathleen Carroll
Senior Vice President and Executive Editor
The Associated Press
Remarks on the safety of journalists worldwide
United Nations Security Council


July 17, 2013

AP Press Release

 

 

Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll addresses a United Nations Security Council meeting on the protection of civilians in armed conflict and the protection of journalists, Wednesday, July 17, 2013 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

 
Good morning ladies and gentlemen and thank you for the opportunity to talk about an important subject — the right of journalists around the world to work without threat or peril.

Everyone who walks into the main newsroom at AP’s global headquarters in New York passes our Wall of Honor, a softly lit display of photographs and biographies of the 31 Associated Press journalists who have died on assignment since the organization was founded 167 years ago.

I pass it every morning, frequently pausing to look at the faces of the five men killed on my watch as editor:

Nazeh Darwazeh, killed on April 19, 2003, while filming a confrontation between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Saleh Ibrahim, shot to death on April 23, 2005, as he arrived to cover an explosion in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Aswam Ahmed Lutfallah, shot to death by insurgents as he filmed their gunfight with police in Mosul on December 12, 2006.

Ahmed Hadi Naji, who left home astride his red-and-white motorbike on the way to the AP Baghdad office and disappeared. His body was found in a morgue six days later, January 5, 2007. He had been shot in the back of the head.

Anthony Mitchell, headed home to Kenya from a West Africa reporting trip when the plane he was on crashed in Cameroon on May 5, 2007, killing all aboard.

Like those five men, most of the 31 people on our wall died covering conflict, beginning with the 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn in the United States.

They fell during the Spanish-American war in Cuba, the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean conflict and World War II – which claimed five AP journalists. Another five died in Vietnam.

Many were shot to death. In an ambush. Or a riot. Shot at a checkpoint. Captured, tortured and shot by the Nazis.

Two were attacked by mobs during civil unrest. Others were mortally wounded by mortars or shells. One went down on a warship, another on a refugee ship.

Others were lost in plane crashes or one of many helicopter crashes, including the 1993 crash in Afghanistan that took the life of the only woman on the Wall of Honor, my friend Sharon Herbaugh.

We bring visitors to the Wall of Honor and it’s important to explain why this is such a special place to us.

These people are part of our professional family. They are in my head and heart each time we send AP journalists off into the world’s many treacherous spots.

But more often, journalists aren’t heading off to an assignment in a treacherous spot. That dangerous assignment is the country they call home and the threat is not from war.

Indeed, most journalists who die today are not caught in some wartime cross-fire, they are murdered just because of what they do. And those murders are rarely ever solved; the killers rarely ever punished.

The Committee to Protect Journalists documents the attacks on journalists each year and their annual accounting is grim indeed. More than 30 journalists are murdered every year and many are abducted and tortured first.

In the overwhelming number of cases — 90 percent — the killers go unpunished. Free to attack and kill again.

CPJ has found that most murdered journalists — 5 in 6 — are killed in their own hometowns covering local stories … usually crime and corruption.

They are attacked by people who know their work, and often know them personally. The journalists are menaced, arrested, beaten again and again; their families or colleagues threatened.

The attacks frequently escalate and some journalists flee their homeland for an exile’s life.
Others are jailed, sometimes for years. Some disappear off the face of the earth.

And many — too many — turn up dead. 12 in Somalia last year alone, 5 in Pakistan, 4 in Brazil, 3 in Syria, others in Russia, Nigeria, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Ecuador, India and the Philippines.

So why should the world’s leaders care about threats against journalists?

Many officials the world over complain that journalists are headstrong and nosy. They ask questions, they write stories and take pictures that don’t always sit well with the powerful people they cover. They aim their cameras at things some people don’t want the world to see.

Yet journalists represent the ordinary citizen … they ask questions on behalf of those people. They go to places the people cannot and bear witness. An attack on a journalist is a proxy for an attack on the people, an attack on their right to information about their communities and their institutions.

It’s true that today, a journalist’s tools are readily available to those average citizens. They have smart phones, cameras, satellite transmissions, and many make important contributions to news coverage.

Indeed, authenticated images and reports from deep inside Syria — some by average citizens, some by partisans — have contributed to the world’s understanding of the fighting in that country in the past two years.

Their work enriches what we learn about the world every day, yet the threat to them can be just as great as the threat to professional journalists.

Who will protect them?

And who will protect the reporters and photographers and editors and radio commentators and television hosts … the men and women who swallow fear every day, who constantly calculate the risks of simply doing their job, wondering if the next breath they draw will be their last.

The safety of journalists is not a political topic or a professional rallying cry for me. It is deeply personal. The journalists we have lost all left families behind, often very young children growing up with only the faintest memories of the parent who never came home.

As much as I want to, I know I cannot personally protect all the AP journalists at work in every corner of the globe. But every day, I try to do it anyway.

Because there are 31 photos on the AP Wall of Honor.

And 31 pictures is enough.

Facebook, Apple, Microsoft Partner With Privacy Groups To Call For NSA Transparency


Posted on July 18, 2013 by Akashma Online News

By

First Published at The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is owned by AOL, which also signed the letter and has denied knowledge of the NSA surveillance program.

A coalition of major tech companies and civil liberties groups on Thursday sent a letter to President Barack Obama calling for more transparency around a secret government program that collects private Internet and phone records.

In the letter, the companies argued that Americans “are entitled to have an informed public debate” about surveillance requests. The coalition urged the Obama administration to allow companies to report statistics about the number of national security requests they receive from government agencies for customer data.

The letter said the government should also issue its own regular “transparency report” disclosing that information.

“Basic information about how the government uses its various law enforcement–related investigative authorities has been published for years without any apparent disruption to criminal investigations,” the letter reads. “We seek permission for the same information to be made available regarding the government’s national security–related authorities.”

“This information about how and how often the government is using these legal authorities is important to the American people, who are entitled to have an informed public debate about the appropriateness of those authorities and their use,” the letter continues.

The companies addressed their petition to President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, NSA Director Keith Alexander, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper and several members of Congress. It was signed by more than 20 tech companies and more than 30 trade associations and privacy groups — including Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Silicon Valley and privacy groups do not always agree over privacy matters, making their partnership for the letter noteworthy. Tech companies have faced widespread criticism in recent weeks over reports that they cooperated with the government’s secret Internet spying program. Many tech giants have expressed frustration that they are prohibited by law from discussing the surveillance orders.

The nation’s largest phone companies, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, were not part of the coalition that signed the letter and have remained quiet about their participation in the NSA surveillance program, as Time.com noted.

The letter comes amid growing calls for greater disclosure about the NSA’s collection of phone and Internet records and a push from members of Congress to scale back the surveillance program, which was disclosed last month in a series of stories in The Guardian and Washington Post.

Disclosure: The Huffington Post is owned by AOL, which also signed the letter and has denied knowledge of the NSA surveillance program.

 

This is Trayvon Martin lifeless body-Not just another black kid


This, Courtesy of MSNBC, Is Trayvon Martin’s Dead Body. Get Angry.

by Adam Weinstein

Trayvon Martin Lifeless body

Trayvon Martin Lifeless body

A reader of mine sent me this photo last night. As the murder trial of George Zimmerman wheezes to its conclusion, the TV networks dutifully pipe in live pool video from the courtroom, as if it is force-fed to them and they have no choice but to excrete it, soft and undigested, into our living rooms, bedrooms, offices. Sometimes, the pool recorder or the networks’ producers don’t switch to a mundane image of lawyers being lawyerly quite fast enough, and we get to see snippets of the human cruelty, stupidity, and frailty that occasion trials such as this.

This is Trayvon Martin’s body. These are the last skinny jeans he wore, cuffed once at the bottoms. These are his stylish kicks, his sockless ankles. There are Trayvon’s taut neck, his slack jaw, his open eyes.

This is what happens. Not just when we input “black” and “teen” and “hoodie” and “night” into our onboard computers and output “DANGER,” but also when we find the aftermath Newsworthy, and must consume it voraciously from start to finish, but insist that we cannot stomach seeing the bones and gristle on our plates.

This image has made its way to the internet on message boards and the like, but not on any notable sites that I could find. The Huffington Post and others have published some images of Martin’s body—covered by a sheet—but none of his face.

I had a brief conversation by email and phone last night with the reader who wanted to send this to me, who felt compelled to save it, but seemed unsure why he had. Before he’d shared the image, I asked him what it showed. Was it newsworthy? He stammered. “It’s… a dead black kid,” he said, disturbed, hoping five words could convey many more. In email, he’d asked me: “What will you do with pic?”

To Trayvon’s parents, Sabrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, I’m sorry that I feel compelled to share this photograph. Were I a slave to journalistic norms, I would say that it’s somehow in the public interest to see him there. I would point out Florida’s sunshine laws, and the TV network’s incompetence, and argue the inevitability that this image would’ve gained a wider audience than it has already.

But those are rationalizations. They don’t explain my motive: Good old-fashioned rage that this kid is dead because my home state empowered a dullard aficionado of Van Damme and Seagal movie cliches to choose his own adventure. Florida literally gave George Zimmerman license to make up neighborhood threats and invite violent confrontations, confident in the knowledge that he carried more firepower jammed down his sweaty fat waistband than every army on earth beheld before 1415.

I wish I were a better person than that, but I’m not. People come up short all the time, after all. I suppose it’s a good thing I don’t have a gun.

Re-Shared from Gawker.com

Gawker contributor Adam Weinstein is a Florida-based writer and editor. You can reach him via adamweinsteinwriter.com.

Florida jury finds George Zimmerman not guilty


Posted on July 13, 2013 by Akashma Online News

Florida Jury set a new precedent for Justice finding George Zimmerman not guilty of second degree murder

11George Zimmerman's parents Robert Zimmerman Sr. and Gladys Zimmerman celebrate following their son's his not guilty verdict in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, Florida, July 13, 2013. REUTERS-Gary W. Green-Pool
A Seminole County Sheriff's deputy carries Trayvon Martin's shirt as trial evidence is moved out of the courtroom in Sanford, Florida July 13, 2013 during the trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. REUTERS-Joe Burbank-Pool

By Ellen Wulfhorst

SANFORD, Florida | Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:50pm EDT

(Reuters) – A Florida jury on Saturday found George Zimmerman not guilty in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, in a case that sparked a national debate on race and guns.

The panel of six women deliberated more than 16 hours over two days until nearly 10 p.m. on Saturday (0200 GMT Sunday) before delivering the verdict, which drew immediate condemnation from some civil rights groups.

Zimmerman appeared stoned-faced as the verdict was announced, but then showed a slight smile of relief. His parents embraced each other and his wife was tearful.

Zimmerman, 29, said Martin, 17, attacked him on the night of February 26, 2012, in the central Florida town of Sanford. Prosecutors contend the neighborhood watch coordinator in his gated community was a “wannabe cop” who tracked down the teenager and shot him without justification.

The jury could have convicted him of second-degree murder or manslaughter.

“Today, justice failed Trayvon Martin and his family,” Roslyn M. Brock, chairman of the National Association of Colored People, said in a statement.

“We call immediately for the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the civil rights violations committed against Trayvon Martin. This case has re-energized the movement to end racial profiling in the United States.”

The news also drew angry shouts from some of the dozens of demonstrators who had gathered outside the courtroom during the day in support of Martin’s family. His parents were not in the court during the reading of the verdict.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson tweeted within minutes of the acquittal: “Avoid violence, it will lead to more tragedies. Find a way for self construction not deconstruction in this time of despair.”

What happened in Sanford that February night may never have gone beyond the back pages of a local newspaper if police had immediately arrested Zimmerman.

But he walked free for more than six weeks after the shooting, because police believed his claim of self-defense, triggering protests and cries of injustice across America.

It also drew comment from President Barack Obama, forced the resignation of Sanford’s police chief, and brought U.S. Justice Department scrutiny to this town of 54,000 residents not far from Disney World in Orlando.

(Additional reporting by Tom Brown in Miami and Barbara Liston in Sanford; Editing by Dina Kyriakidou and Peter Cooney)

 

Braking News: Plane from Korea Crashes in San Francisco


Plane Crashes on Landing in San Francisco

Isabella Lacaze

The plane’s tail was snapped off some distance from where the plane finally came to rest in the grass off the runway.

By

A Boeing 777 operated by the Korean airline Asiana crashed while landing Saturday at San Francisco International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

KTVU

The plane was Asiana Flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea, a spokesman for the F.A.A.

Noah Berger/Associated Press

Images and video of the crash showed the plane on fire, with smoke billowing from crumpled fuselage, lying on its belly on scrub grass at the airport.

Images and video of the crash showed the plane on fire, with smoke billowing from the crumpled fuselage, lying on its belly on scrub grass at the airport. It had lost its tail.

The debris field from the crash began at the seawall at the start of the Runway 28, according to aerial video images. Both wings remained attached but one engine was ripped off. The tail was snapped off some distance from where the plane finally came to rest in the grass off the runway.

The plane was Flight 214 from Seoul, South Korea, a spokesman for the F.A.A., Lynn Lunsford, said.

Firefighters were on the scene, but there were no immediate reports of the extent of casualties, although there were reports that the rescue slides had been deployed and a number of passengers had escaped. It was not clear how many people had been on board.

David Eun, who said in a Twitter message that he had been a passenger on the plane, posted a picture of a downed Asiana jetliner from ground level, which showed some passengers walking away from the aircraft.

An aviation official, who did not want to be identified discussing a fluid situation, said that the plane was not making an emergency landing, and that the situation had been entirely normal until the crash. The cause was also unclear.

Stefanie Turner, who posted on Twitter that she had witnessed the crash, said that the “plane came in at a bad angle, flipped, exploded.”

Juan Gonzalez, the supervising manager at Amoura Café in the airport, said that he did not hear any explosions but was told by airport workers that the tail had snapped off when it landed.

“Right now, there is just a lot of smoke and all the fire trucks are trying to get to the plane,” Mr. Gonzalez said

There was no immediate answer at a number listed for Asiana at San Francisco’s airport.

The Asiana plane took off at 5:04 p.m. Korean time, about 34 minutes after its scheduled pushback from the gate, according to FlightAware, a tracking service. It reached the runway in San Francisco at 11:28 a.m., Pacific time. FlightAware said the route was slightly longer than planned, 7,257 miles over 10 hours and 23 minutes.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in Washington that it would dispatch a team of investigators immediately, including the board’s chairwoman, Deborah A.M. Hersman.

The Asiana 777 is the second such plane to be destroyed on the runway. In January 2008, a 777 operated by British Airways crashed short of the runway at Heathrow in London on a flight from Beijing; investigators said ice had accumulated in the fuel lines and recommended a change to assure the problem could not happen again. There was only one serious injury among the 152 passengers and crew on board the British Airways flight, but the plane was destroyed.

Norimitsu Onishi, Mark Santora and Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting. Susan Beachy contributed research.

AIPAC, Decapitators Inside US Government: Intelligence Analyst


Posted on December 03, 2012 by Akashma Online News

By Gordon Duff and Press TV

“Behind the plotters are drug cartels that have penetrated the US government, former lobbyists who were moved into government during the Bush administration and now are suspected of being involved in a coup attempt.”

IPAC designed to made policy in the US. Israel first, Jews next then US

IPAC designed to made policy in the US. Israel first, Jews next then US

Seventy hours ago, at this writing, while on Air Force One, President Barack Obama issued a press release that has been utterly ignored by the Western Press.

The president has openly announced a move against violent plotters inside the US government and espionage agents. He does not use the terms “AIPAC” or “the Israel lobby” but it is highly unlikely he could be referring to anything else.

In fact, we can think of no other group.

I was privately briefed on some of the reasons behind this document. On what is known, not “surmised,” I will explain:

There is, currently, within the US military, the Executive branch of government and among extremist “power brokers” in America an active plot to “alter” America’s form of government through “decapitation.”

Let me be clear. Where the memo, printed in full below, refers to “violent”, it means “assassination” of many top leaders in America including but not limited to the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and others.

The plot makes use of the resources of major private defense contractors and their intelligence and special operations personnel. There has been active recruiting that has been noted and is why the memo was released and why many members of the military have been subjected to investigation.

The Benghazi attack was planned and financed by this group.

Many writers in the alternative media have noted much of what is going on but not all. Some have shown access to very knowledgeable sources.

Behind the plotters are drug cartels that have penetrated the US government, former lobbyists who were moved into government during the Bush (43) administration and now are suspected of being involved in a coup attempt.

There is no direct evidence tying any foreign government to this plot though most are “fanatically” aligned with the militant Likudists in Israel under Netanyahu’s regime.

The President’s text below, unedited:

The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release

November 21, 2012

Presidential Memorandum — National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies

Subject: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs

This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.

The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.

The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.

Barack Obama

A very real threat to world stability

To some, at a glance, this might actually sound like a response to leaks within the CIA and White House except for some extraordinary language. Please make very special note of the following:

“…to deter, detect and mitigate actions by employees who may present a threat to national security…These threats include…violent acts against the Government and the Nation…”

Please note that they refer to “violent acts” and speak of both the “government” and “nation.”

By “government,” they are indicting, with no “wiggle room,” assassination plots.

By “nation,” they may well be referring to false flag terrorism that may well include use of weapons of mass destruction. Britain was subject to such a threat during the London Olympics, one that would never have been successfully overcome without the help of journalists who put themselves at great risk.

Espionage

The US government has had a twelve-year moratorium against arrest and prosecution of spies within our government and military other than those who can be tied to China.

The most famous Chinese “spy” was Wen Lee Ho, a nuclear scientist at Los Alamos Labs. He was arrested in 1999, held in solitary confinement for a year and then released.

In order to get an accurate picture I phoned two friends, one a senior FBI counter-intelligence operative and the other a very senior US Army intelligence officer.

The question I put before them, while eating breakfast, was:

“Please list the nations that represent the greatest threat of espionage against the United States and, which nations, in order, are believed to represent the “penetration threat” that President Obama is referring to.”

From the FBI, their appraisal not intended for the “pop culture” media:

“Our greatest direct threat is Israel and the Israel lobby. They have systematically penetrated every aspect of government and the military and, if they cannot get documents from those branches, friends in congress will give them access to anything that branch has available. After that is India, with every research facility at risk from RAW (Indian Intelligence) penetration and then Cuba, Mexico and Turkey.

The primary end users of this intelligence, the “clients,” are Russia and China.”

From the US Army:

“I agree with Israel and the rest but we have not had Turkey on our radar. The obvious end users are, of course, Russia and China based on capability.

The issue I have is how a presidential press release, an extraordinary and almost “draconian” document has gone without an uproar from congress and wide press coverage. Who has the power to suppress reporting on something like this, though, I know that you will say it is Israel, I would want proof.

Though there has been no official notification of this, I am of the impression that we now consider any mention of Israeli spying to be highly classified. Only Russia and China are officially listed, entirely out of concern not to offend lobbyists whose feelings outweigh real issues of national security.”

Then I turn on my television, hour after hour of TV shows about espionage and terrorism. Both American and British TV are the same.

All spies are from Iran and Pakistan; nations that our actual intelligence agencies indicate represent no espionage threat to speak of.

In fact, in my two Saturday morning phone interviews, which can, of course, be confirmed by Homeland Security who has tapped my phones, I have reflected with great accuracy. Thus, we ask you to read what President Obama really did not say “between the lines,” the message is quite clear.

We do not see a roundup of AIPAC spies, not like in the early days of the Bush administration although Attorney General John Ashcroft quashed that investigation.

What we are seeing is a hunt for traitors within the American government and military, some of which is working its way onto the news.

The question of the moment, however, is this:

How can a President of the United States announce that the government is infiltrated with terrorists and spies and no newspaper, television network or other form of media notices?

AIPAC Inside the US Government

AIPAC Inside Britains Israel Lobby

Related Posted:

It’s Time to Challenge the Propaganda Regarding Who is Killed by U. S. Drones: The CIA runs the drone program and it is shrouded in secrecy, which enables  people like Brennan to  characterize  the program in glowing terms,  which go mainly unchallenged by the media, and contribute to the public assumption that drones are accurate, safe, and taking out the bad guys.

A Silence Fight It’s My Right! Hunger Strike For Justice


Posted on April 06, 2012 by Marivel Guzman, in Collaboration with Omar Karem (Gaza, Palestine)

The Silence of a Hunger Striker Can Be Heard Around the World With Your Help

Hani Shalabi, at Gaza hospital bed after being deported from Israel after she engaged in the longest woman huger strike in an Israeli prison. Photo/Omar Karem

The silence protest staged by Palestinians Conscience Objectors is the best Non Resistance Weapon and only resource Palestinians have inside Israel Prisons,  Often denied  the rights of an attorney, which is the case in most of the detainees, they leave them with few option to exercise their rights.
A silence hunger strike staged by an individual could be the lousiest of the protest can any one perform, the role of the press and the mouth to mouth news it is the key element to make it to succeed.

On March  23  the ethics committee of Israel Bureau of Prisons announced that Hana Shalabi was going to be forced to eat artificially using gastrointestinal tubes, a practice that it’s considered inhumane treatment by Amnesty International, because even though is propagated as a human practice to save the life of a prisoners it curtail their freedom of expression and rights to protest in a Non Violent Way.

The rights group condemned any attempts to force Hana Shalabi, who had been on hunger strike for 37 days (at the time of this report) in protest of her continued detention without trial, to eat as “cruel” and called on Israel to either charge or release her.

Government guards waiting Hani Shalabi arrival to Gaza, after a long hunger strike in an Israeli prison she was deported to Gaza as a deal bargain to release her. Photo/Omar Karem

Amnesty International condemned any attempts to force Hana Shalabi, who was on hunger strike for 37 days in protest of her continued detention without trial, to eat as “cruel” and called on Israel to either charge or release her.

The World Medical Association (WMA) has longstanding clear guidelines for the ethical behavior of physicians in treating hunger strikers. The Israeli Medical Association is an active member in the WMA. It should be emphasized that doctors should not only refrain from such action, but they should object to it even if they are not involved directly in the process as stated clearly in the first principle of the declaration:
“Duty to act ethically. All physicians are bound by medical ethics in their professional contact with vulnerable people, even when not providing therapy. Whatever their role, physicians must try to prevent coercion or maltreatment of detainees and must protest if it occurs.”

Her father Yehia Shalabi expressed the family’s concern. “My daughter is on hunger strike since they arrested her,” he said. “Her health is in danger, because her stomach is empty. She cannot stand, she does not speak.” Hana Shalabi’s mother and father have joined her hunger strike.

Hana Shalabi case took global dimensions and sparked hundred of solidarity movements around the world, in the US many Universities students  groups joined Hana Shalabi in her hunger strike, some students staged 24 hours hunger strikes and others went to 3 days in public displays of solidarity.

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The Palestinian and Irish struggles are similar in dimension and they share the same pains and suffer the same struggles, Martin Hurson (RIP) became the first Irish prisoner to die behind bars when his hunger strike entered its 44th day. Many of the surviving Irish hunger strikers had serious damage to their health and never fully recovered.

In the US,  2 American Citizens have started their own hunger strike to protest the treatment of Palestinians Prisoners and to send a message to President Obama on the conditions of the citizens of Occupied Palestine.

Their Hunger Strike Non Violent protest have continued even after Hana Shalabi was forced to chose between life and her rights. She did not got charged with any crime, as it was the previous arrest where she spent 2 years in Administrative Detention, finally on April 2, she was deported to Gaza in a deal to save her life she accepted the exile, even thought Gaza it is Palestine, her family lives in West Bank known as the Occupied Territories, but Israel have placed an illegal blockade on Gaza Strip separating the Palestinians from their families. Erez crossing point, commonly known as “Non Men Land” divide Gaza from West Bank, no Palestinian is allowed to cross to either side, only International Workers and products that are allowed from Israel use that crossing.

Second American Citizen to Join The Hunger Strike for Justice for the Palestinians Prisoners in Administrative Detention in Israel Jails

Nancy Williams an American Peace Activist has added her voice to Hunger Striker Non Violent Resistance Movement against injustice in Palestine, she is today on her 7th day, she followed the lead of Sandra Rose Twang the first American Citizen to join the Hunger Striker Non Violent Movement in an act of Political Protest against our government for supporting Israel.

“Hello everyone, this is Nancy Williams. I began a hunger strike for Palestinians, on March 30, 2012, 12am. So now, I am in my 43rd hour of my hunger strike. Originally I was going to do this hunger strike for, when I heard about Hana Shalabi, who was also on a hunger strike. She was arrested by the Israeli government, illegally, and she stopped her hunger strike the other day. So, I decided to still go through with this because there are still many Palestinians that are arrested illegally. Women, children, older people, and something really needs to be done about it. I’m really hoping that my hunger strike helps. Not only that, but the Israeli government is violating International Human Rights laws.
Nancy Williams

Sandra Twang the First American Activist that started the International Campaign of Non Violent Protest of Resistance joining Palestinians Prisoners in hunger strike crossed the 15 days in hunger strike today.

The arrival of Hana Shalabi to Gaza coincided with the International Seminar on Palestinian Political Prisoners and Detainees, which has as special guess the journalist and peace activist Lauren Booth from UK. Lauren Booth drew world attention in 2008-2009 Israel assault to Gaza Strip when she got caught up inside the Gaza Strip and was witness of the massacre that Israel perpetrated on the innocent population of Gaza.

Over the years Hunger Striking have become more and more powerful tool of Political protest, and seems to be taking the stage in the global Non Violent Resistance Movement against Injustice and Inequality.

From Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association ADDAMEER, the development on Hana Shalabi ordeal. Please kindly Share

Date of birth: 7 February 1982
Place of residence: Burqin, Jenin
Date of arrest: 16 February 2012
Place of detention: Meir Hospital
Number of administrative detention orders: 1
Expected end of current detention order: 23 June 2012
Hana Shalabi was released from over two years in administrative detention on 18 October 2011, as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas, whereby 1,027 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Hana was re-arrested less than four months later on 16 February 2012, and immediately began a hunger strike in protest of her detention.
ARREST
 
Hana Shalabi was arrested from her family home on 16 February 2012, when approximately 50 Israeli soldiers raided her house in Burqin village, near Jenin, in the early morning. The soldiers were accompanied by an intelligence officer and a large number of dogs and first raided her brother’s home before coming to her house. The IOF moved through his house with the pack of dogs, causing the children of the household to panic. When the soldiers entered Hana and her parents’ house, the intelligence officer commented that it would just be a “five minute visit.” The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) then ordered Hana and some of her family members to leave the house, while holding her father and older brother in a room by themselves.
After the soldiers searched the house, the intelligence officer announced that they had an order to arrest Hana, without showing any arrest warrant or providing any reason for her arrest. Hana was not permitted to change her clothes. The IOF then proceeded to brutally threaten and abuse Hana and her family. First, Hana’s brother heard the intelligence officer say, “Hana must die.” Next, one of the soldiers grabbed her hand and pulled her. Hana objected and told him that if they needed to hold her, they should bring a female soldier to do it. He completely disregarded her and when she tried to remove his hand, he began to beat her upper body and slap her in the face. Hana’s brother, Omar, attempted to jump in front of her to protect her, but the soldiers attacked him and beat him with their guns.
A female soldier was then summoned to detain her. Hana requested to be able to say goodbye to her family and change her clothes, including putting on her veil, as she was only wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a pair of pants. The officer refused and told her that her mother could bring her clothes to her later. Hana said that she would not leave without wearing her veil and traditional Muslim dress. After a long argument, the soldier agreed to let her change in her brother’s house. The female soldier went with her and the rest of the soldiers waited outside while she changed. Hana was blindfolded and put in a military jeep, where she was made to sit on the ground on her knees. Each time she tried to move, the soldiers ordered her to stay still and shut up.
HUNGER STRIKE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION
 
Hana was taken to Salem Detention Center and left blindfolded for two hours in a tiny room. She was then subjected to beatings and a humiliating strip search by a male, which caused her severe trauma. Hana described the forced strip search and subsequent assault at the hands of the IOF as “utterly degrading” and that what they did to her was “not acceptable in all customs of the world”. Hana began an open hunger strike on the first day of her arrest in protest of the ill-treatment she was subjected to during and following her arrest. She was kept in solitary confinement for the first three days of her detention in HaSharon Prison, in a section of the prison far from where the other Palestinian women are held.
On the fourth day following her arrest, Hana was transferred to a different section of the prison near the other Palestinian detainees, but was again placed in a room alone. The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) administration attempted continuously to convince her to end her hunger strike, employing such methods of pressure as threatening to place her in solitary confinement for an extended period. Two days later, on 21 February, Hana was transferred back to Salem for interrogation.
After being brought back to HaSharon Prison, she was taken to Salem Military Court on 23 February, where one of her lawyers informed her that she might be placed in administrative detention. She was brought back to HaSharon and was not shown a written administrative detention order. Her lawyers received a copy of the order, which stated that she would be held in administrative detention for six months, until 16 August. As with all other administrative detainees, Hana’s administrative detention order is based on secret information collected by the Israeli Security Agency and available to the military judge but not to the detainee or her lawyer.
On the same day, 23 February, Hana was also sentenced to seven days of solitary confinement as punishment for her hunger strike. The IPS continued to threaten her with prolonged isolation or placing other female prisoners in isolation. After four days, on 27 February, Hana was transferred out of solitary confinement and into the same section as the other Palestinian female prisoners. Hana viewed this as a further attempt to pressure her to break her hunger strike, as the other women were eating in their cells.
After an initial medical examination by the IPS, Hana refused any more medical treatment from the IPS from 27 February. On 4 March, the IPS denied the request made my Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) to visit Hana. However, PHR-Israel filed a petition to an Israeli District Court, which decided on 7 March to permit visitation to Hana.
The hearing to consider the confirmation of her administrative detention order was supposed to occur on 27 February at Ofer Military Court, but was postponed until 29 February. During the hearing, the military judge announced that he would not be making a decision and would instead be meeting with an Israeli Intelligence officer on 4 March. In the meeting, neither Hana nor her lawyers were permitted to be present. On 4 March, during the Military Court of First Instance session to review her administrative detention order, military judge Dalya Kaufman dismissed the request by Hana’s lawyers to call on witnesses to testify to the assault and abuse inflicted upon Hana. The judge stated that the request was denied based on the fact that “the prosecution requested the military police to conduct an investigation”. The judge then confirmed her administrative detention order for a period of four months, shortened from the original six-month order.
Her appeal was heard on 7 March, but no decision was made on that date. During the hearing, the military judge only allowed four of Hana’s lawyers to be present in the room and asked all others to leave. After hearing the legal arguments of her defense team and the military prosecution, the judge requested that the prosecution consider revising its position before he made a decision.
Despite Hana’s deteriorating health condition, Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan noted in her appeals hearing that she was handled very roughly by soldiers at Ofer military court. Prior to the hearing, members of the Nahshon escort and intervention unit of the IPS arrived to transfer her to Ofer from HaSharon. A female soldier informed Hana that she would be conducting a strip search in front of the other female prisoners in the corridor, where there are cameras. After arguing, the female soldier agreed to conduct the strip search in the bathroom. Hana was then told that she would be punished upon her return to HaSharon and her arms and legs were shackled in a very strict manner.
A PHR-Israel doctor was able to visit Hana for the first time on 8 March, and subsequently on 12 March and 19 March in prison. During a visit by Addameer lawyer Muna Neddaf on 16 March, Hana stated that the IPS’ attempts to get her to end her hunger strike have included continuing to deny her family visits for the next month from 13 March; pressure from a Muslim cleric who is a member of the IPS “Ethics Committee”; and attempts to undermine her confidence and trust in her PHR-Israel doctor, including providing her with misinformation and telling her the doctor does not care about her. The IPS continues to consider force-feeding in disregard to the principles of medical ethics and the guidelines of the World Medical Association and the Israeli Medical Association.
A PHR-Israel doctor concluded on 19 March that Hana was in immediate mortal danger and should be immediately transferred to a hospital for close observation. Hana was transferred to the civilian Meir Hospital that night. However, for unknown reasons, she was not admitted to the hospital and the IPS transferred her back to the IPS medical center in Ramleh Prison Hospital later on the same night. Her doctor was not informed until the following day. Hana reported being handled violently during the various transfers, including being “dragged across the floor.” The IPS subsequently told her doctor that they would not consider her transfer back to the hospital until the doctor issued another medical opinion. Hana was finally transferred back to Meir Hospital on the night of 20 March.
 
On the 39th day of her hunger strike on 25 March, the Israeli Military Appeals Court rejected the appeal against Hana’s administrative detention order yesterday. The court decision ordered Hana to remain detained for the full duration of her four month administrative detention order, to be expired 23 June. In his decision, the military judge disregarded Hana’s critical medical condition; rather, he stated that she is responsible for her own recovery. The military judge also did not consider Hana’s complaints of torture and ill-treatment during and following her arrest as reason for her release, instead noting that her complaint was still under investigation. Hana’s lawyers have submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court for her release.
On 26 March, a PHR-Israel doctor visited Hana in Meir Hospital. Following the visit, the doctor reported that on 24 March, because of drastic deterioration in her blood test results, Hana agreed to receive calcium and Vitamin K, which protected her from immediate heart attack. Her doctor also stated that Hana’s muscle atrophy and wasting increased, which includes her heart muscle. Hana still refuses nutrition aside from vitamins and salts in her water and is in danger of death. The hospital Ethics Committee may consider the possibility of force-feeding, in disregard to the principles of medical ethics and the guidelines of the World Medical Association and the Israeli Medical Association.
HANA’S FAMILY AND PERSONAL INFORMATION
 
Hana’s mother, 65 years old, and father, 67 years old, were on hunger strike in solidarity with their daughter following the issuance of her administrative detention order. They later began to undergo a daily fast, along with other members of her family. None of Hana’s family members have been permitted to visit her since her arrest, as punishment for her hunger strike. On the day of her appeal on 7 March, Hana’s father arrived at Ofer military base at 8:00 am in order to see her, but the military judge and Israeli soldiers made every effort to ensure that he would not be able to see her even from a distance. Furthermore, the door of the courtroom in which the hearing took place was locked so that no one would be able to open the door for him to look through from outside. The military judge repeatedly rejected all of Hana’s lawyers’ inquiries related to this matter.
Hana is one of nine children in a family of farmers in Burqin village, next to Jenin. On 29 September 2005, Hana’s brother Samer was killed by Israeli forces during an incursion in the village. He had been released from prison for only three months after spending nine months in prison when a group of soldiers came to their farm to re-arrest him and instead shot and killed him and his close friend.
After being released from prison on 18 October, Hana planned to study nursing at Al-Rawda College in Nablus. As she was re-arrested less than four months later, she did not have time to enroll.
Prior to her first arrest by the Israeli authorities, Hana was arrested and held by the Palestinian intelligence forces for a week in 2009 for the purpose of interrogation. During this period, Hana was permitted to sleep at home and was kept in detention from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. each day.
PREVIOUS ARREST AND DETENTION
Hana was first arrested by Israeli authorities from her family home on 14 September 2009. At approximately 1:30 a.m. that morning, Israeli soldiers in 12 military jeeps surrounded her house in Burqin village. The soldiers ordered Hana’s entire family outside of the house and demanded Hana give them her identity card. They then proceeded to conduct a thorough search of the family’s home. During the search, one of the soldiers forcibly removed framed pictures of Hana’s brother Samer, who was killed by the Israeli army in 2005, tore them apart and walked over the pieces in front of the entire family. The soldiers then started shouting and cursing at Hana and her family members. When Hana’s father attempted to intervene and protect his daughter from continued verbal abuse, one Israeli soldier pushed him in the chest with the butt of a rifle. Clearly distressed, Hana’s mother fainted at this scene. The soldiers then handcuffed Hana in painfully tight shackles around her wrists and placed her under arrest.
Hana was then transferred by military jeep to Salem Detention Center. During the transfer, Hana’s abaya, a traditional Muslim religious dress covering the entire body worn by women over home clothes, came open, uncovering her clothes and parts of her body. Some of the male soldiers accompanying her in the jeep took pictures of her at this point, consciously exploiting her situation, knowing she would feel offended and humiliated by such photos. Upon arrival to Salem Detention Center, a doctor gave Hana a quick physical examination. Immediately after the examination, Hana was transferred to Kishon Detention Center inside Israel where her interrogation formally began.
Solitary confinement and abuse
 
Hana was held in solitary confinement at Kishon Detention Center for eight consecutive days, in a cell measuring six square meters that contained no windows or natural sunlight. The cell contained only a mattress and a bathroom, and was reportedly very dirty. Hana was subjected to exhausting interrogation sessions every day, which lasted from 10:00 a.m. until the late evening hours. The lack of natural sunlight during this period caused her to lose all sense of time and she was often unable to determine whether it was night or day. As this period of isolation and disorientation coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, Hana was unable to monitor time in order to respect her fast. As a result, she decided not to eat at all, refusing meals and drinking water only during the entire eight day period.
Hana was also subjected to sexual harassment and physical violence during her interrogation. Hana told Addameer attorney Safa Abdo of an incident that occurred at end of an interrogation session, in which she did not confess to committing a crime, as her interrogators had expected. In a move that Addameer contends was an effort to provoke Hana, one of the Israeli interrogators called Hana “habibti” (Arabic for “darling”) in a provocative manner. Feeling humiliated and angry at the interrogator’s offensive use of an intimate term, Hana started shouting at him. The interrogators responded by slapping her on her face and beating her on her arms and hands. The guards then took her back to her cell where they tied her to the bed frame and continued humiliating her by taking pictures of her laying in that position.
Addameer filed a complaint regarding these violations and only received a reply two years later from the district prosecution in Haifa that they were closing the file for “lack of evidence,” without informing her lawyers what process had taken place to investigate the complaint. Most complaints of this kind are similarly closed due to the unclear claim of “lack of evidence,” showing a consistent policy that they are not taken seriously by the Israeli courts. Addameer is greatly concerned by the deliberate verbal abuse Israeli detaining authorities display towards Palestinian female prisoners by directing sexual threats towards them and using inappropriate, vulgar language.
Administrative detention
 
After Hana’s interrogation period concluded, she remained in Kishon Detention Center for nine additional days, which Israeli authorities claimed were necessary for the purpose of investigation.
On 29 September 2009, Israeli Military Commander Ilan Malka issued a six-month administrative detention order against Hana on the premise that she posed a threat to the “security of the area”. The order was set to expire on 28 March 2010. At the judicial review of the order, which took place on 5 October 2009 at the Court of Administrative Detainees in Ofer Military Base, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, military judge Ilan Nun confirmed the order for the entire six month period, but agreed to count the two weeks Hana had already been detained towards her detention period. In his decision, Nun alleged that, based on the “secret information” made available to him by the military prosecution, Hana was intending to carry out a “terrorist attack”. The judge further claimed that Hana had already undertaken initial steps in preparation for the attack, though he provided no proof to support this allegation.
Addameer contends that the judge’s decision raised serious questions and fair trial issues. Seventeen days of investigation by the Israeli Security Agency, including eight days of consecutive interrogation did not prove the suspicions against Hana and no evidence of the alleged “intention” was brought before the court. Moreover, at no point did the court establish Hana’s affiliation with a Palestinian political party or armed group, nor did it establish whether Hana planned to carry out the alleged attack by herself or in partnership with anyone else. Additionally, the nature of a possible partnership was never investigated. Importantly, all suspicions directed towards Hana remained vague and general, leaving her without any legitimate means to defend herself. Although administrative detention orders issued by the Israeli military commander are the subject of review and further appeal by a military court, neither lawyers nor detainees are permitted to see the “secret information” used as a basis for the detention orders, rendering any possible legal defense meaningless.
Hana’s attorneys filed an appeal against her administrative detention order, but the appeal was refused and Hana’s order remained set until 13 March 2010. This was subsequently extended for six months. On 12 September 2010, Hana’s administrative detention order was extended for an additional six month period. In March 2011, her order was again renewed, and in July 2011 it was renewed for a fourth time, due to expire on 9 November 2011.
Hana was released from prison on 18 October 2011, as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded by the Israeli government and Hamas, whereby 1,027 Palestinian political prisoners were released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Though her administrative detention order at the time was set to expire less than a month later, it remains unclear whether or not her order would have been renewed an additional time.
Detention conditions
Prior to her transfer to HaSharon Prison, Hana spent a total of 17 days in Kishon Detention Center, where she was not once given a change of clean clothes. Hana continued to be detained in interrogation-like conditions for three days after her administrative detention order was issued. On 1 October 2009, she was eventually transferred to Section 2 of HaSharon Prison, where, allegedly due to overcrowding in the section where Palestinian female prisoners are detained, she was placed in the same section as Israeli females detained for criminal offenses. This placement was a direct violation of Israeli Prison Service Regulations, which stipulate that administrative detainees are to be held separately from all other detainees and prisoners, including those who have been convicted of a crime. Moreover, while detained in the same sections as Israeli criminal offenders, Palestinian female prisoners are almost always discriminated against, enjoy fewer recreation hours and are often subjected to humiliation and abusive language from Israeli prisoners, who threaten them of physical attack. As a result, Palestinian women live in constant fear and often experience insomnia, and other psychological problems for the entire time they are detained in the same sections with Israeli women.
Addameer attorney Safa Abdo filed a complaint with the HaSharon Prison administration regarding Hana’s detention conditions. On 25 October 2009, after being held for 25 days among Israeli criminal offenders, Hana was finally moved to Section 12 of HaSharon Prison with the other Palestinian female prisoners and detainees.
Hana remained held in Section 12 of HaSharon Prison, one of Israel’s largest facilities, together with approximately 18 other Palestinian female prisoners before being released. The building which now constitutes the prison complex served as the headquarters of the British Mounted Police during the British Mandate in Palestine and, as such, was never designed for the incarceration of women. As a result, Hana suffered from the harsh detention conditions and complained of overcrowding, humidity, lack of natural sunlight and adequate ventilation, as well as poor hygiene standards.
 
***
 
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold detainees indefinitely on secret evidence without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of Military Order 1651. This order empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six month renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed. This process can be continued indefinitely.
For more information about administrative detention and Addameer’s Campaign to Stop Administrative Detention please visit our website: www.addameer.org.
The Arab Association for Human Rights denounces the current practice of administrative detention under which 309 Palestinians are detained. The Association de mands that the international community, particularly the United Nations and European Union, act quickly to protect Prisoner Hana Shalbi’s life and urge the Israeli authorities to release her immediately or bring her before the court respecting the internationally recognized due process of law. Alterative News
Read Addameer’s report on administrative detention:
Read Addameer’s report on detention conditions for female prisoners: “In Need of Protection”: Palestinian Female Prisoners in Israeli Detention, November 2008
****
ACT NOW!
Here is how you can help Palestinians Prisoners
*Write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that All Prisoners in Administrative Detention be released immediately.
  • Brigadier General Danny Efroni
    Military Judge Advocate General
    6 David Elazar Street
    Harkiya, Tel Aviv
    Israel
    Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526
    Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il
  • Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi
    OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command
    Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalam
    Fax: +972 2 530 5741
  • Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak
    Ministry of Defense
    37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
    Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
    Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757
  • Col. Eli Bar On
    Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria PO Box 5
    Beth El 90631
    Fax: +972 2 9977326
*Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release Conscience Objector Palestinians Prisoners and to put an end to such an unjust, arbitrary and cruel system of incarceration without trial.  It is Illegal and it is Unfair, and Inhuman.
Lauren Booth Journalist was on the first Free Gaza voyage and stayed to work in Gaza after the boats left. Her heartfelt letter to the people of Israel should be read by everyone who hopes for peace in the Middle East. This stunning video tribute to her words was designed and produced by the Free Gaza movement.
Before all, she is human and she witnessed the atrocities that Israel committed in Gaza during the assault, she shared the pains of the mothers losing their sons, and the children left without parents murdered in from of their eyes, could be the most devastating event any human can suffer without losing the faith in God, but for Palestinians that Faith is what have kept them alive and resisting this 65 long occupation.
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